Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,768 · Stories: 19,540

• Ringed seal Pusa hispida

  

  A small seal of the seasonally ice-covered seas around the Arctic. It keeps breathing holes open in the ice.

• Southern Surucua Trogon Trogon surrucura

  This trogon lives in humid forests and wooded river corridors in South America. Males have blue chests and green backs, while females are mostly grey; both sexes take insects and other prey from perches.

• Cape Long-eared Bat Nycteris thebaica

  This bat ranges across Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Its large ears, divided noseleaf and T-shaped tail are distinctive, and it hunts insects and other small invertebrates.

• Black kite Milvus migrans

  A familiar raptor in Japan, with long wings and a long tail that has a shallow notch at its tip.

• Philippine Fairy-bluebird Irena cyanogastra

  A fruit-eating forest bird endemic to the Philippines, it searches for figs and other fruit high in the canopy. Both sexes have glossy blue-and-black plumage.

• Gursky's Spectral Tarsier Tarsius spectrumgurskyae

  This small nocturnal primate occurs on the northern peninsula of Sulawesi. It has a long black tail pencil and lives in forests, mangroves, and forest gardens. It is active at night and feeds on live prey, mainly insects.

• Domestic cat Felis catus

  A domesticated cat with many coat colors, patterns and hair lengths.

• Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre

  A southern North American bird that uses its long bill to turn leaf litter while searching for insects in dry scrub.

• Malayan tapir Acrocodia indica

  The Malayan tapir inhabits Southeast Asian tropical forests. Adults have large black-and-white areas on the body.

• Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs

  A familiar finch in Britain and Ireland. It searches the ground for seeds and insects, and shows white on its wings in flight.

• Little Minivet Pericrocotus lansbergei

  In the 1886 description from Bima on Sumbawa, the male had a green-blue sheen on its black head and throat, with red-orange on the breast and part of the wing. A 1993 survey recorded the bird in forests on Flores and Sumbawa and reported that Flores males looked darker.

• Brown Hyena Parahyaena brunnea

  A hyena of southern Africa's dry regions that is mostly active at night.

• Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus

  A whale of the deep North Atlantic, recognized by its rounded forehead and projecting, bottle-shaped beak.

• Ibisbill Ibidorhyncha struthersii

  The Ibisbill searches for food along stony rivers with its long, down-curved red bill. It may feed alone beside highland rivers and streams.

• Hatt's Vesper Rat Otonyctomys hatti

  Hatt’s vesper rat is a small mouse with russet fur and a pale underside. It is often found in trees and feeds on seeds and fruits.

• Grey heron Ardea cinerea

  A large heron that waits in shallow water to catch fish and other prey. In flight it draws its long neck back toward the body.

• Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura

  Adults have a bare red head and soar with raised wings in a teetering flight. They use their sense of smell to find carrion.

• Franciscana Pontoporia blainvillei

  This small dolphin lives along the southwestern Atlantic coast from southeastern Brazil through Uruguay to Argentina. It uses shallow, turbid coastal water and estuaries, feeding on small fish, squid, and crustaceans.

• Eurasian golden jackal Canis aureus

  The Eurasian golden jackal is a medium-sized canid found across a broad part of Eurasia.

• Varied Sittella Daphoenositta chrysoptera

  This bird searches for insects by working down trunks and branches, often moving among trees in flocks. Adults are grey above and white below, while their wing pattern varies across Australia.

• Omura's Whale Balaenoptera omurai

  Omura's whale is a slender baleen whale. A study off northwestern Madagascar recorded asymmetric jaw coloration and loose groupings of mostly unassociated individuals.

• Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago

  The Common Snipe has a long, straight bill and mottled brown plumage. In the United Kingdom it is most numerous in northern uplands, and birds from northern Europe also arrive in winter.

• Huayco Tinamou Rhynchotus maculicollis

  This tinamou inhabits the Andes of Bolivia. It uses tall grass and shrub-covered grassland, including herbaceous meadows and cultivated areas.

• Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon

  A ground-dwelling mongoose that uses wooded areas near water.